The Eye of God
by Wolfkins
Summary: Inspired by Universal Soldier & The Soldier. After a stunning & deadly encounter w/ a keeper Eve is forced to help the soldiers of the Eye of God, a hated & powerful entity. She's made to endure treatments & take part in their trials, injected w/ their experimental serums. But when Eve can take no more she decides to take them down w/ her. There will be hell to pay. R&R please!
1. Chapter 1

They were exactly the same, well same but different. Each keeper retained his own facial features of course, making them somewhat individual, on the outside at least. But everyone one of them had the same cold, hard stare, the same set to their shoulders, the same inexpressive face. They carried their bodies the same, limbs stiff, backs straight, muscled arms always holding their rifles at the ready, wore the same immaculate uniforms. Their eyes, no matter what the color, had the same look to them, always assessing the situation or the person in front of them, always moving and alert. But at the very same time they looked dead like their souls had been plucked from their chests. Eve had pretty much considered them the same man, all two hundred of them, because even when they spoke it all came out the same, a deep, firm, no nonsense tone. The words too were always the same, turn around to be scanned, back to your homes, move along - when they handed you your rations or when they had taken someone out and they lay bleeding in the dirt - move along. The same, every single keeper, like the dolls they gave little girls.

Eve had never seen anything different in her twenty years of life, until him. She'd probably seen him a hundred times before or maybe not, there was no way to know for sure because he was the same...until that day.

* * *

"How did you do it?" he growled, grabbing Eve's chin to tear her eyes away from the dead keeper lying at their feet.

"You killed him." she lamented, eyes drawn back to the green orbs staring up at her lifelessly. Eyes that at the very last hour of his life had shown he did have a soul, that he wasn't like the others. L17 was his name, though not a name by any means.

Eve jumped, then stiffened when the heat of the scanner was suddenly warming the back of her neck. The keepers all moved like spectres in the night too, which was very disconcerting for men that were so large.

"Everly Grace Talon, age twenty, junior nurse, sector two, house ten, mother, two brothers." came the monotone voice over her shoulder. He could have gone on forever, the chips held all of their information from their blood type to their biometrics, even their threat level.

The Eye was all knowing.

Eve peeked at the spectre behind her out of the corner of her eye wondering, needing to see if her keeper had been different. Maybe she'd only seen what she wanted to see in L17. The keeper just stood firm, already scanning the busy square around them, eyes dead to the world like all the others. L17 had been different, even if for just a moment.

"Everly." the controller said her name slowly and firmly, fingers tightening painfully on her jaw. "How did you do it?"

She looked at the controller for the first time, tears streaming down her cheeks. Why was there light in his eyes, why did he get to retain his soul when the keepers had it trained right out of them? She'd never thought about it before but now it was impossible to ignore.

"D-ddddd-do do what?" Eve stuttered, badly wanting to pull away, sickened by his touch. But disobeying a soldier of the Eye of God was like asking for death.

She'd seen dead bodies before but always from afar and never had she been made to feel their hot blood splatter her skin. Death and destruction were all around, as much a part of life as breathing but Eve had never actually had someone ripped away from her like that. Though she'd barely known him that's how it felt. She'd felt an immediate connection with L17, which outside of her small family had never happened.

The controller frowned at the emotional state of the woman, admittedly surprised that she would cry over something as hated as a keeper. Normally he wouldn't deal with the citizens, they were low, prone to being weak and amoral but clearly there was something special about this one. More and more of the keepers had begun breaking down and no one could figure out why. It had started small at first, one keeper here or there, a trivial loss, but now it was happening on a monthly basis. They were the top, the elite, supposed to be physically and mentally perfect in every way and yet they were going nuts! None of his specialists had been able to reach them, stop them from self destructing and in several cases taking others with them...but she had.

With her help, willingly or not, they might not have to tweak the training regimens or the breeding program. There was always an uproar if they changed the breeding system or introduced a new serum. The citizens didn't see their vision, didn't understand that they were just preserving what was left of humanity. The Eye of God hadn't ruined society, they were just the ones left to pick up the pieces.

"Get L17 to give you the gun." his voice was a cross between urgency and exasperation. "How did you talk him down?"

M. Cooper, the controller's name patch read, why did he get a name when the keepers didn't?

She squeezed her grey eyes shut as they were once again seeking out the dead keeper of their own accord, blood pooling around his head. The sick, wet sound of him hitting the ground was playing in her mind over and over, making her belly roil.

"I just talked to him...like a person."

He'd told Eve her eyes looked like souls as he crouched down to where she sat by the dilapidated water fountain, though she wasn't quite sure what he'd meant. Before she could ask though the keeper went on, asking if she thought he had a soul. That's when he'd pulled the handgun out and his eyes had teared up, muscles tense and twitching.

"Get rid of him!" the controller snapped at the keeper breathing down her neck when her newly opened eyes slipped to L17 yet again. "Anything in particular? Any key words?" he demanded, roughly grabbing her by the elbow and dragging her with as he walked away from the scene.

Eve took one last look at the keeper as she stumbled after Cooper and barely suppressed a gasp. She would have sworn on her life she saw him blink...but no, no if it had happened it must have been his nerves. Not even a keeper could survive a bullet to the skull from point blank range.

"No." It wasn't any of his business. And what did he mean by key words? "I just told him that there was always something to live for."

There'd been more, so much more but he didn't deserve to know. Eve had given those words to L17 and he'd believed them enough to return the hand gun to its holster. Their conversation had probably lasted about ten minutes, fifteen at most but it was real, she'd felt it. She couldn't even talk that real with her mother as guarded as she was. The controller considered Eve's words and determined that she was lying. He'd made a career out of people, knew their habits inside and out. But he wasn't ready to call her on it yet because she'd done something he hadn't been able to. There were more important things to consider, like her value to the program.

"Sector two, hmmm?" he asked, already steering Eve towards the bridge. She'd heard there used to be a lake running beneath it but she'd never seen it for herself.

"Yes." she said slowly, trying to put on the brakes.

The controller simply tugged her on without breaking stride.

"How old are your brothers Everly?"

She could tell immediately that the controller wasn't just asking to be kind or conversational and her pulse kicked up nervously. There was an angle, an implied threat written on his hardened face.

"Please...I haven't done anything wrong…" people disappeared all the time, sometimes for no other reason than to prove a point.

Cooper turned to the citizen and smiled, feeling certain satisfaction when her body quivered in fear. Everly was a bit thin, her brothers probably got the majority of the rations, but looked strong, her body would hold up. Perhaps there were even more uses for her beyond solving the mystery of his of his soldiers' minds.

"And I'm sure it'll stay that way. Won't it Everly?"


	2. Chapter 2

The gargantuan stained glass eye stared down at Eve as she peered out the grimy window of Cooper's jeep. Behind them the guarded, barbed wire topped gate slid closed with a sense of hopeless finality. Despite the conditions of the sectors around their headquarters, the building that housed the Eye was beautiful beyond words. It was in the shape of a pyramid but instead of bricks it was constructed of black glass panels lined with gold. On the front of the pyramid, perhaps half the size of the building itself, was the eye. It had been created out of stained glass panels of every color of the rainbow, a beautiful and frightening monstrosity. The red iris seemed to follow them as they traveled up the drive at a swift pace, and its stare held actual weight. The eye was curved up at the corner to give the illusion that it's unseen face was smiling but the look it gave the world said otherwise. Eve found herself fighting not to squirm beneath its scrutiny and the imagined sensation of heat on the back of her neck.

She'd never been that close to the Eye, any civilian that had hadn't lived to tell about it. Eve had no illusions that she would live to either. Her only goal was to do well enough that they had no reason to go after her family before or after she outlived her usefulness. And she would undoubtedly do just that in a brutal, militarized, male dominated world.

Her eyes had been so focused on the eye that Eve hadn't even noticed the jeep come to a stop. Beside her Cooper cleared his throat, yanking her from her thoughts and prompting the keepers to exit the back seat. When her door was yanked open by an intimidating dark skinned keeper the situation became frighteningly real. She was about to enter the Eye of God and something deep inside of her knew that if she was ever allowed to leave it would be as a changed woman and not for the better.

"Move along."

Hesitating as long as she dared, Eve hopped out onto the dirt drive, dust pluming around her standard black sandals. She was fairly certain the sandals were strategic because it was nearly impossible to run in them. Cooper waved her over to his side and she forced her leaden limbs to comply. Behind them the second keeper fell into line with the box containing her meager possessions perched on his broad shoulder.

Cooper had to admire how well the citizen was holding up after watching a killing, finding out she was to be taken away from her home and saying goodbye to her family. She'd been misty eyed while hugging them goodbye but had managed to hold it in, presumably for the sake of her younger brothers. He firmly believed Everly would fair better than their last doctor, as long as her body could survive the treatments that was. Doctor Hanson had been older and rigidly set in her ways, sometimes provoking the keepers. He'd been tentatively thinking of executing her, despite her extensive medical knowledge, when D1 had snapped her neck during their weekly steroid dosing. Everly was only a junior nurse but it wouldn't take a fucking genius to use the injection gun. He was interested to see if she'd have the same effect on the others as L17, hopeful. They hadn't had to kill D1, just locked him up since the public hadn't witnessed anything, so if things went well he would introduce them. His army of two hundred was now one hundred and fifty trained soldiers and fifty keepers in training. They'd been forced to lottery fifty toddlers to begin their training, which was a pain in the ass. The Eye couldn't afford to keep losing men.

"Welcome to the Eye of God Everly."

Cooper gave her a little push towards the glass doors, two keepers holding them open, causing Eve to stumble slightly. Hold it together, she told herself, as they climbed the stairs side by side. No more crying, you have to be strong now for your family. At the age of ten her twin brothers were too old to be lotteried but revenge could be taken in other forms like starvation or execution.

"I'll show you to your quarters, give you some time to settle in and then at dinner you can meet the rest of the controllers."

Eve just nodded in reply as they entered the building, struck silent in fear and awe. It was much, much larger on the inside than she'd suspected, had brilliantly white walls and electric lights that caused her to squint against the brightness. Everything was so clean and shiny and the air was fresh and cooled, a stark contrast from the stifling heat outside. Her pale skin, slightly dusty from the elements, speckled with goose bumps.

Cooper led her to an elevator, which she recognized from the gathering center, but had never been inside. Electricity was very limited in the sectors and generally reserved for heat in the winters. He took possession of her box, pressed the button and they waited in silence for the ding and the doors to open before entering, while the keepers remained behind. The controller hit the "10" button and the doors closed, cutting off Eve's view of the exit to the outside world. It didn't escape her attention that they'd put her on the very top floor and wondered if they thought she may try to escape. There was a whirring noise beneath their feet and Eve had to grab the railing to steady herself when it began the ascent and again when it came to an abrupt halt on their floor. The elevator opened up directly into a large room, longer across than her house. There was a large silver table in the center of the room and glass fronted cabinets lining the walls on each side.

"The surgery, where you'll be working." Cooper told her absently as he led Eve across the room and through a set of double doors at the far end.

She thought to tell him that she didn't belong in a surgery, being only a junior nurse, but of course he already knew that from her scan.

Behind the doors was a large room with light brown walls and the most gigantic bed the young nurse had ever seen. Her feet froze just inside the doors as another wave of awe washed over her, was this hers? The bed could have fit her entire family.

"These are your quarters." he said, as if reading her thoughts. "Through that door is the bathroom." he nodded towards a smaller door on the left.

"I have my own bathroom?"

He nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and Eve felt a little guilty at the shiver of excitement that zinged up her spine. She hadn't done anything to deserve such luxury. Of course neither had the controllers or the marshals above them. They had everything a person could need and more, while breaking up families and torturing people, keeping everyone beneath their thumbs under the guise of making a better society.

"I'll send up some uniforms and footwear." Cooper said curtly before ducking out.

Eve was glad to see him go. The controller wasn't a large man, only a few inches taller than herself but he carried a very large presence and an air of authority that could end her in a heartbeat without even lifting a finger. Eve mulled around for a minute, standing uncomfortably in the doorway before deciding that deserving or not she was here now and needed to make the best of it. She left her dirty sandals by the door and made a quick circuit of her new home, which led her to the bathroom.

The bathroom itself was near as large as the bedroom portion, with a separate shower and bathtub, the latter of which was large enough to fit at least two people. The walls and floor were covered in white tiling and though they were clean and bright, the decor left Eve feeling empty. If the keepers' quarters looked anything like what she'd witnessed so far it was no wonder they looked so vacant. All the luxury in the world was pointless if you had no one to share it with.

A sharp rap at the door drew her out of her budding melancholy with a small start. Standing just outside the double doors she found a keeper with a small basket, dwarfed further by his muscled arms. His eyes turned to look coolly at Eve as she approached and a little chill worked its way up and down her spine like little impish feet. She'd never been alone with one of them before and it was a sobering reminder of her vulnerability. Eve was in their world now and as far as her world was concerned she was never coming back. No one would ever know if she died at their hands.

"Clothes and supplies." he said curtly and thrust the box into her arms. "I'll be back in one hour to collect you."

The keeper was already at the elevator before she'd had time to even construct a sentence. With a sigh Eve closed the doors to her room and decided to get cleaned up for dinner. If she was going to do her family any good she needed to make a good impression and prove her worth...as stomach churning as these people were.


	3. Chapter 3

She wasn't what M2 had been expecting after the old wrinkled woman doctor before her and the three men before them. The other doctors had looked at him like the citizens had, with utter contempt. In the Eye of God it was slightly different, they looked through one another and only the controllers and marshals looked at one another as a show of respect. Keepers had not earned, nor did they deserve respect, not in The Eye anyway. The citizens owed them respect but never gave it. So why then did this woman look him square in the eye when he spoke and without the coldness no less? It wasn't what he would have called a warm look either, perhaps a bit frightened though M2 was quite used to that, but her eyes didn't carry any hate or malice. He didn't normally think about a lot of things, in fact he tried not to because free thinking was the root cause of civil unrest. But ever since he'd brought Everly her box he couldn't stop thinking. What did her actions mean, did she think him worthy of respect? Did this make her worthy of respect in return? All the thinking made M2's head ache so badly that he stumbled a little getting out of the elevator. He was forced to brace himself against the wall, one hand holding his head as what felt like little jolts of electricity shot up each side of it. He hissed in pain, vision going a little blurry at the edges, and gritted his teeth until finally the moment passed.

Eve donned her new outfit, a black short sleeved shirt, black and grey pants and shiny black boots, and frowned at herself in the mirror. While she didn't particularly want to wear anything that made her look like one of them, she had to admit it was nice to have some clean clothes that hadn't been repaired countless times. Still...she felt like a traitor.

Loud, insistent knocking on the door deepened Eve's frown, dinner time. She wasn't at all ready for this. On the other side of the door was the same keeper from earlier. When he looked at her, however it was different than before. His gaze wasn't as sharp and his skin was as white as a ghost, covered in a fine sheen of sweat. She opened her mouth to ask if he was alright, merely a force of habit, but closed it just as quickly when his arm swept out in the direction of the elevator.

"Move along." he ordered, voice slightly raspy.

Eve looked at him for a moment longer before obeying. She wasn't going to worry herself over some assholish keeper. The trip downstairs went far too quickly for her liking and what felt like a heartbeat later she stood in the gaping elevator doors, the air around her eerily silent. It was dinner time, weren't they even allowed to relax and talk then? She took one tiny little step before freezing, her heart thumping madly, then another large one with the help of a push from her keeper. Everly gave him a sharp look as he took the lead but M2 paid her no attention. A dull ache was still plaguing his head and he couldn't afford to make it any worse by trying to figure out what she was feeling. Eve had to practically jog to keep up with the keeper as he led her across the entryway and down a long, narrow hallway. Her eyes were slowly getting used to the brightness but she still squinted a bit when they passed beneath the electric lights. They passed up a large cafeteria style room with rows and rows of tables like her old school. Instead of chatty children however they were filled with silent keepers just staring down at their plates as they ate together separately. After a minute they came to a stop outside of an office with just one long table occupied by five authoritative figures, one woman and four men. The office was a bit darker, with the same brown paint as her room, and it put her slightly more at ease and feeling less like she was under a microscope. M2 stepped in first and waited silently for his superiors to notice him, hands clasped behind his back. One was never to interrupt them without dire cause.

Cooper watched the pair for a moment before acknowledging his soldier. Everly was standing at M2's side, eyes falling to each person in turn without giving away a hint of the thoughts behind them. He was pleased to see that she wasn't blubbering like earlier and her eyes weren't red. She was nervous though, telltale by the toe of her left boot tapping the floor every few seconds. It was a habit he would have beaten out of his keepers in training at a young age but he'd have to let it slide with her. Bigger fish to fry, he told himself as he stood to greet them.

"You may go M2." Cooper said sternly, as he rounded the table to join Everly. He took her by the elbow as the keeper disappeared, leading her to the empty seat beside his own. "Everly this is Ms. Bateson, Myers, Albertson and Harris." each controller nodded in turn to their name, not that it was too necessary for her to remember as they each wore a name patch.

Eve nodded as well, slightly dumbstruck by the presence of the woman. She was middle aged and stern looking, with her blonde hair pulled back into a tight bun, but though she looked the part, Eve couldn't fathom why any woman would align herself with a baby stealing, cutthroat entity like the Eye. There wasn't a specific reason why it should, they were all just as evil, but for some reason her association disgusted Eve on a whole new level.

Eve barely touched her food, despite how tantalizing it looked and smelled, her stomach tied in a big mass of knots. There was small talk and questions that made her feel small and unremarkable or perhaps remarkable for all the wrong reasons. It was obvious that they weren't having her to dinner to get to know one another, they were sizing her up. They were recording and analyzing every answer, every facial expression. The only thing they revealed was that her formal duties would begin in the morning and taught by none other than Ms. Bateson. They still hadn't told her what those duties were however.

* * *

"Mom, what's going on?" Tobias whispered from the doorway of Patsy's bedroom.

She didn't look up from her work as he hung by the door, one fist rubbing his sleepy eyes, the other holding onto the frame for support. He watched curiously as his mother pulled out a red bag with clear tubing attached. The red bag she attached to a hanger which she then hung from the edge of the bed frame so that it was on a slope. The clear tubing she hastily unrolled and secured it to something silver and shiny.

"I'm helping sweetie, just like at work." she replied absently. "Go back to bed now."

Tobias ignored this and crept closer to her bed where the object of her "helping" lay. His head tilted left, then right as he tried to ascertain what exactly was going on. Mom never brought patients home, she saw them at the clinic. Why then was this man in her bed? And was he even still alive? He looked dreadfully pale and the whole left side of his head was covered in red and white bandages.

"Mom?" Patsy heard again from the doorway, teeth gritted as she worked with adept hands to insert the needle into his collapsing vein.

She bit back a curse when another set of feet padded over to the bedside, knowing that the boys were never going back to bed. She had truly hoped they wouldn't wake, the less they knew about her insane plan the better. And it was insane, she had no illusions about that. God only knew if the man was going to make it, his pulse had been so weak when she'd first gotten to the dumpster they'd discarded him in that she'd originally thought he was dead. It had taken her forever to drag him home on her makeshift stretcher in the darkness.

Patsy couldn't say for certain what had come over her to take such a foolish chance, except for the tears in her daughter's eyes over _him_. Eve was always so stoic, so mature for her age, she'd never been one to cry over boys. And then she'd just been whisked away with no explanation as to why, only that she belonged to the Eye now. No one returned from the Eye, ever. On second thought, she did know why she'd done it. The keeper was important in some way, whether to Eve, the Eye or both, and she needed to know why. Perhaps he was the key to getting her daughter back. It was a risk with potentially grave side effects, which was why she'd been hoping to keep it a secret from her boys, but alas it was too late for that.

All she could do now was pray that he'd pull through and that it was worth the risk.


	4. Chapter 4

"I don't understand." Eve half growled, flinching away from the injection gun. "I thought you were going to show me how to use it, not inject _me_."

Ms. Bateson smiled tightly and blinked several times through her thick, dark lashes as if Eve were the densest person she'd ever met. Bateson didn't really fit the profile of what she thought the controllers would be like. She seemed more suited to intellectual conversations over tea and pretentious business suits with heels, not their military garb and rigid ways.

"You need your injections _and _you need to learn to use it, so I figured we'd get both done in one fell swoop."

Alba sighed, not bothering to hide her frustration. Of course it had been left for her to deal with, it was always left for her to deal with. Still, she had to admit that this could advance her research by leaps and bounds. She'd tried many new things in the breeding program but never changing up the breed_ers _before.

"What sort of injections?" No one had mentioned injections!

In the end Alba had decided on lies and an authoritative stance; lies first though. They could do whatever they wanted, Everly was in no position to make demands. If she told the girl the truth about what serums she was being given, she may try to make a run for it and Cooper swore up and down that this girl may be able to give them better keepers than what they had. If she wanted to keep her job and possibly her life, Alba needed to make sure the girl stuck around. Despite Cooper's assurances, she had reservations about Everly interacting with the keepers on a daily basis. Reintroducing humanity after they'd drilled it out of the soldiers was dangerous. Even a little piece of it, such as the kindness of the girl, could ruin everything they'd worked so hard for. But those opinions were kept to herself. She'd worked far too hard on her projects to be unceremoniously ousted for real or implied dissension.

"Vaccinations against diseases and vitamins for your health." she replied with a bigger, albeit forced smile.

Eve bit her lip uncertainly but it wasn't like she had a choice in the matter, she was essentially a slave. She wasn't so naive as to think they were exactly what Ms. Bateson said they were. Eve had been fully vaccinated as a child and someone in charge of the program would know that. She watched with trepidation as the woman loaded the gun with a vial of dark amber liquid, but didn't pull away as it was placed against her upper arm.

"Don't worry, they won't hurt." she assured Eve in a falsely sympathetic tone, dark brown eyes locking onto hers.

They never hurt, she wasn't worried about that, but rather what was in them. Bateson had four of them laid out, all different colors, but equally daunting. Eve made a mental note of the colors, she was going to look for them later and find out what they really were. She didn't think that they were trying to kill her, they could have done that with a simple bullet in the square like they did with L17, but they definitely weren't above experimenting on her. What events had just been put into motion, she wondered as the first shot penetrated her arm, was she going to become soulless like the keepers? The thought of losing herself, having her humanity erased like it was nothing, was devastating.

"So what sort of injections will I be giving…" her voice trailed off abruptly when the click of the third shot reached her ears and was immediately followed by a rush of heat that seemed to snake its way up and down her body leaving cold tingles in its wake. Eve put the palm of her hand to her forehead as a wave of nausea washed over her body. "Oh my god." she breathed, swaying slightly.

Ms. Bateson hastily finished off the final injection and set the gun down on the silver exam table like nothing had happened.

"There, all done."

"What was that?" Eve demanded, anger and fear fighting for dominance of her words.

"I already told you." she replied, blinking innocently.

Alba studied the girls reaction, the constriction and dilation of her pupils in rapid succession, the blanching of her skin, like a fascinating science project. She'd never given anyone that combination of serums before, it would be interesting to see how Everly fared. The controller waited until Everly leaned heavily on the table before jabbing her arm with the suction needle, painless and generally undetectable. She'd need to do blood tests regularly to make sure the serums were working, there was no sense in moving forward with the plan until her body was ready.

"Feeling better?" she asked, trying to sound concerned, when the nurse straightened up. She nodded in reply, despite the visible tremor in her limbs.

Eve floundered for a long moment, her head swimming and unable to grasp any one thought. Her heart was pounding in her ears and she fought to act calm, not wanting Bateson to see her acting so weak. What the fuck had she been injected with?

The controller beckoned Eve to follow her and she did her best to follow along on wobbly legs, head spinning. They stopped at what she'd thought had been just a silver, double doored cabinet. When the controller opened the doors however it turned out to be a refrigerator and the cool air speckled her skin with goosebumps and sent hot tingles up her spine. She took in a multitude of shelves stuffed full of white, green, red and black trays that held vials of matching color. Eve narrowed her eyes, trying to focus on the scene before her but her vision was beginning to go blurry at the edges, making the liquid inside the vials dance and shimmer.

"The red and white ones are given on a daily basis to the keepers. Green are given weekly to the trainees and black are weekly for the keepe..." Alba's explanation broke off with a sigh, frankly she wasn't really certain the girl could hear her anymore. Hmmm, perhaps she'd used too high a dose of hormones. "How do you feel?" she demanded excitedly, wishing she had her notebook with her.

"I ummm, I…" Everly murmured and crumpled to the floor like a rag doll.

Oh well, the dosing would be a learning process.

* * *

Eve didn't look up at first when the hawkish shadow fell over her, she'd done no wrong and he would leave when he was done trying to intimidate her, a classic keeper move. But then he squatted down in front of her so that they were of eye level and her heart began thumping anxiously. This wasn't normal, they never got this personal without physical violence following close behind. That was something she'd learned first hand as a teenager, when her mouth and a display of open defiance had earned her a broken arm. Eve had promised through a fit of tears, as her mother reset her arm, that she would conform. Next time it'll be worse, her mother had warned, using two metal rods and some gauze to make a crude cast. Because her arm had been deemed a punishment her mother wasn't allowed to use any supplies provisioned by the Eye. This time the keeper had used his bare hands, a mere warning. For four years Eve had kept that promise, eyes down, mouth shut. So why then was this happening?

Nervously her eyes flicked up to his face, avoiding eye contact for just another moment before chancing a look. They seemed to beseech her as if looking for answers, like maybe she held the key to what was ailing him. And there was no mistaking it, he was ailing, one look into his haunted eyes was all it took for her to feel just a fraction of the weight he was holding inside.

"Your eyes." he whispered. Eve flinched slightly when his fingers gently grazed her chin to keep her gaze level with his own. "They looks like souls." Eve's mouth dropped open as she stared at the handsome yet tortured face before her in complete awe. It was easy to forget that the keepers were human. "Like you carry not just your own soul but those gone before you as well."

Mouth still ajar, she attempted to formulate words, mind reeling with confusion and nervous excitement.

"Do you think I have a soul?" the keeper continued.

His thumb gently brushed her cheek just once before he abruptly jumped to his feet. Eve jumped to her feet as well in alarm, watching the keeper as he began pacing back and forth in front of her.

"Whaaaa…"

The keeper stopped just as abruptly as he'd started and maybe it had already been there but the gun seemed to just materialize in his hand. A blink later it was pressed to the side of his head and his eyes had welled with tears.

"No, what are you doing?" Eve breathed, watching the muscles in his gun arm twitch as if he and it were fighting for control.

"Do you think I have a soul?" he repeated more firmly.

Had anyone asked her the very same question about the keepers before that day, Eve would have given an emphatic no, unquestionable. But now, she wasn't so sure, not about the others at least. This keeper did, she could see it as she peered into the green windows of it, her own heart aching from what she saw there.

"Yes." she replied with certainty.

"Do you think I would keep it in hell?" he demanded.

There were so many people around, the square full to bursting on market day, but it felt like they were the only two. All she could see was him and all he was looking at was her. And it was so quiet that the click of the safety was deafening.

"H-hell?" Eve coughed out. "No, no don't do that. There's always something to live for." She couldn't say why but tears sprang to her eyes. She shouldn't care about a keeper, they carried out the "laws" of the Eye. They'd killed so very many people, more than a few of them close to Eve but she wanted more than anything in that moment to save him. "Tell me your name." she whispered, stepping closer and putting a hand on his gun arm.

The keeper eyed her guardedly for a moment before letting the subtle weight of her hand draw his arm down and the gun away from his temple.

"L17...yours?"

"Eve." and then a thought that had never once occurred to her before. "Do believe in what the Eye does, do you support them?"

L17's eyes narrowed for a moment, head tilting to the side as if wondering if Eve was trying to trick him in some way.

"I have to be this."

"Then I wouldn't be so certain that hell awaits you."

Before their pastor had been killed, he'd preached every Sunday that only those with evil in their hearts would be banished. Perhaps L17 was lying, he could have supported the way of the Eye, but she didn't think he was.

"Tell me Eve, what do _I _have to live for? Me, a keeper."

"I've always dreamt of something better, leaving this life behind and just taking my chances outside of the Eye's grid. There has to be more than what they're saying is out there." Why was she telling him this, pouring her heart out to a stranger, to a keeper? Eve couldn't seem to stop herself though. Why did L17 affect her the way he did? "There could be a new life to live for, your soul for another and me, whatever I represent."

The keeper parted his pale lips to respond but closed them just as quickly. Then his shoulders slumped and the hope disappeared from his bright green eyes and she turned to see what he was looking at over her shoulder. It was them…


End file.
